Who Questions Bill Gates' Commitment to Web Standards? — On a rainy Wednesday in Redmond, Washington, 14 invited bloggers and industry leaders gathered at building 20 of the Microsoft campus for a full day of discussion regarding Microsoft's outreach to its communities via the upcoming MIX07 conference.

Todd asks "why no hard questions for BillG?" — Over at Geek News Central Todd Cochrane asks an interesting question about yesterday's Bill Gates Blogger Meetup. "It pisses me off that none of them could ask a hard question" he says, while asking what hard questions would you ask?

No HARD questions for Bill Gates how come? — I am really disappointed with the Bloggers that went to Microsoft yesterday and got to meet with Bill Gates. I was pretty excited to read the commentary on their blogs but highly disappointed that none of them asked hard questions.

The 'Frankenbuild' monster — Over the last few weeks, we've seen a number of attempts at workarounds for Vista product activation. As of now there are at least two distinct workarounds that have worked to some degree, but I'm sure there are more on the way.

Microsoft tries to stop Vista piracy monster — Microsoft has issued an update to Windows Vista that's intended to stop a piracy monster. — The software maker said Thursday that the update is aimed at thwarting a technique that was letting some people use pirated versions …

TRUTH IN STATISTICS: Glam.com's high-price visitors — Ah Samir Arora looks so beatifically happy in that photo, and it's no wonder why: Glam Media, the fashion site headed by the smiling web guru has just raised an astonishing amount of money, $18m. Arora, former boss of e-commerce provider NetObjects …

DISK DRIVE PIONEER LED SEAGATE — SILICON VALLEY BUSINESS PIONEER LED SEAGATE — On his office desk, Alan ``Al'' Shugart kept a small, wooden triangle with a straightforward message: ``Keep it simple.'' — But the life of the disk drive pioneer, who died Tuesday at 76 …

Adobe Releases Beta Version of Photoshop CS3 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) will introduce a beta version of Adobe® Photoshop® CS3 software, the next release of the world standard in digital imaging, on Friday, December 15th. Adobe is delivering a widely available Photoshop CS3 beta …

Adobe to release Intel-native Photoshop CS3 beta — Photoshop users who've been waiting for a version of the image-editing program that runs natively on Intel-based Macs are about to be rewarded for their patience. Adobe will release a beta of Photoshop CS3 on Friday, December 15, that's available as a Universal Binary.

But What Are Software Patents Good For? — from the still-waiting? dept — Tim Lee, over at the Technology Liberation Front is breaking down a recent report defending software patents from the Progress & Freedom Foundation — a think tank which claims to be libertarian …

Whatever Happened to Online Etiquette? — "Dear David, first off i would like to tell you that you are full of s*** and did not research the zune enough to know your facts. — "The following are incorrect, and not limited to: podcasts, giftcards, looks(which is an oppinion), controls, and content.

Yahoo Music Releases Video 3.0 — Yahoo Music launched Video 3.0 in beta today. The company sent us the screenshots below to give us a preview of the new video player. — Video 3.0 will have both Firefox and Mac compatibility through flash technology, higher quality video streams, and tailored playlist capabilities.

Skype users to get lie detectors — Callers using internet phone system Skype who might be tempted to tell a few porkies should beware - the user on the other end may have a lie detector. — Skype is to offer the KishKish Lie Detector, which is made by BATM, as an add-on for customers.

December '06 Back Compat Update — Just in time for the holidays and now with Psychonauts! The backwards compatibility update is now available over Xbox Live. This free update brings the complete list of original Xbox games that you can play on your Xbox 360 to over 300.